Writers Written

Lately I’ve been following this Insta account, which as the name implies, frames the artist as subject. I then realized I’ve read several books in the past few weeks which feature real life writers as fictional characters.

Love and Fury by Samantha Silva

This novel examines the life of Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist who wrote about women’s rights in the 1700s. Her unconventional relationships, interest in the natural world, and tumultuous childhood are given a lyrical treatment by Silva. The birth scene that opens resignedly, “Another girl. In this world” ends with celebration, “Another girl, in this world!” And if you haven’t read Silva’s Mr. Dickens and His Carol, what the deuce!

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

The only thing that gets Tookie through her period of incarceration was books. She lands a job in a Minneapolis bookstore and has a ready recommendation for anyone who walks through the door. That includes her most challenging customer, Flora, who upon death, decides she’s not ready to leave. As Tookie deals with Flora’s presence, and a powerful book she left behind, the bookstore’s owner, an author named Louise, must figure out how to keep the store running as a mysterious virus begins spreading. (Did I mention this is 2020?) Darkly humorous, the novel presents the events that are so fresh in our memories from the perspective of the essential employees who kept many of us sane, booksellers. And reflects on how the Native community responded as the racial reckoning erupted.

Ruminating on Aging...and Hoarding

Taking the day off for my birthday, so I present a repost from 2015...

Koozies from a third-cousin’s wedding. A shoebox full of novelty pencils with inefficient erasers collected from birthday party treat bags and church carnivals. Yellowed copies of newspaper clippings of University News features articles, circa 1997. The Christmas wreath painting made with a three-year-old's footprints.

These are the possessions that keep me up at night, fueling my fears I am on my way to becoming a hoarder.

Enter the cautionary tale. The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell centers around the home of Lorelei Bird. Lorelei loves Easter, her four children, and every scrap of shiny paper produced by either. As each child moves away, his or her room becomes not only a shrine but a room-sized storage bin for thrift store finds and bulk items bought on sale. Eventually, as she ages, her piles and stacks grow, leaving only a small space for a laptop and an armchair. 

After she dies, her daughter Meg arrives to sort through the mess. Hidden beneath the kindergarten paintings and Easter candy wrappers are the various threads of the story that pulled the family apart. Slowly, through this process of purging, Meg is able to reconnect with the estranged members of her family. Together, they not only clean out the house, but air its dusty corners. 

So will the koozies make the cut in our upcoming move? Ask my daughter in forty years.

Lent

A repost from 2010..

This is not about giving up chocolate. It's about sacrifice, mourning, and forgiveness. And a cello.

Jeffrey Lent's After You've Gone tells the story of Henry and Olivia. And Henry and Lydia. And Henry and his cello. Henry takes us from his childhood in Nova Scotia, to his marriage and professional career in New York, and finally to a sabbatical in Amsterdam. But not in that particular order.

Having read Lent's works A Peculiar Grace and Lost Nation (in that order), I braced myself for tragic clashes, piercing descriptions of setting, and even bloodshed or rape. However, this story seems mellower, though it does contain its fair share of heartache. Before reading this novel, I've never had a particular desire to travel to Amsterdam. If anything remains of Lent's account of its 1920s beauty, I probably should add it to my list.

I'm still mulling over the ending. Not to give anything away, I'll just say it was all wine and roses - and even chocolate- in none of the right places. But since it's Lent, all is forgiven.